Sunnyside Warehouse Burns Down

An incredible blaze broke out at a Sunnyside factory last week with billowing black smoke high into the sky that could be seen as far away as New Jersey at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The fire seen from a passing 7 train last week.

According to an FDNY spokesperson, the custom woodshop, New York Custom Interiors, located at 43-34 37th St. was victim to a five-alarm fire that brought in 50 firetrucks and 200 firemen. Four firemen were injured and three were transported to a nearby hospital. The FDNY had the fire under control by 11:22 p.m.

Michael Walsh, a craftsman at the woodworking shop, takes the train in from Yonkers every morning. That fateful Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m., he was stunned to see from a few blocks away that 37th Street was blocked off by police.

Three hours later he was still waiting a couple of hundred feet away from the burned-out warehouse on the corner of 37th Street and Queens Boulevard, hoping that his $5,000 drafting table with machinery attached was by some miracle spared. “If it is, I can take it and work anywhere,” he said.

“They’re really good people,” Walsh said of the owners. “They know how to treat you. It was one of the last real custom shops in New York that do it all by hand.”

Walsh said the family-owned and operated business had been around since 1969.